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Concerning C&C and General Posting

Due to heavy concerns about the sheer number of wasteful posting going on, this has been posted by Umi then hijacked by Zephyr Flare.

--ON GOOD POSTING, CONSTRUCTIVE AND USEFUL NON-SPAMLIKE COMMENTS--

Do NOT post saying anything that sounds remotely like the following:

"wow that is the best art ever 10/10!!!"

"good job vibrant colors this deserves 9/10 "

“Lol this rulez”

No. That's not how comments are supposed to be. Do you know what that's considered? Right, spam. So don't do it. If we see blatant spam like this we're going to do the following:

1) Delete it
2) Warn the author or the post
3) See if they've spammed more so they can get their second warning and be banned for a week

What you need to do is avoid using the number rating system as much as possible since it is this that most people use to make themselves look good. Yes it can be used on proper posting don’t worry, this is just at the moronic ones

Unless you've given at least a paragraph, or a few sentences, of criticism, we don't want you posting (Unless you're posting art, of course). We'd like to keep this art forum nice and clean.

Artists usually like hearing feedback and criticism – However saying something like the following:

"good job i love it best pciture vevar!!!!1"

Is nothing but sheer annoyance for all concerned.

An example of a good critique procedure is as follows:

1. What they like about them
2. What needs to be improved on the artwork
3. What the artists needs to do to improve his/her art abilities for the future

These three sentences will help the artist improve his/her art abilities and gain confidences to do it. Also it'll help to know the art vocabulary or at least go to art school to learn how to do constructive criticism. Is it really too hard to show the remotest evidence you have seen the art and not just bumping your post count?

One good example of C&C and one generally good posting is the following:
“Your creature creations are rather well rendered. It is apparent that you’ve had some experience in drawing them from the two examples that you have provided. They are more detailed and look better than your human drawings at any rate (which I’ll get to later).

So…what can I say about your Diaruga and Kyuubi? Well, Diaruga’s portrait looks fine, though I’m not a fan of the mouth. But then again, Diaruga’s mouth has always looked stupid to me anyways, so it’s not your fault. You left it primarily unshaded as only a reference for your morph, so I can understand that.”

“I love the artwork, particularly the Suicune one, more so with the twist of it being centaur made. Great job ”

Bad examples aka what people generally get annoyed with:

“they are.. intresting, i thing they are good though...”

“i love them!”

“wowowowo....sooo kewl.....i hate you, i wish i could draw pic as good as you..im soo jealous....”

“they look awsome!!!”

That is not commentary, and for people who have a problem with it, FIX IT. Find something that the art could use improving on, comment in an organized manner, make sense and give C&C that's more then one sentence long. ANYTHING to show that you are clearly giving good critique and not just posting to raise your post count.

If you don’t feel you’re very good at crit though, instead of mindless praise show evidence you have seen the images, why you liked what you did, if anything doesn’t seem to quite work for you.

Here’s hoping people listen

---

Lately I've been seeing my fill of trite and pointless comments in response to some people's art. Artists can be sensitive what you say to them in response to their art. After all some of them are "starving artists" and they feed from the comments. Okay, bad joke, moving on...

Artists should not post solely for praise (if you do there could be some problems down the road).

Pay attention to the notes from the artist so that you can critique properly. When an artist writes notes below or above the image it can be vital to understanding the piece.

This was done by me so I don't have to deal with permission issues from anyone else.

Alright, let's start critiquing. Just not in this thread, I've already received critique on this.

This is Nikki, she is an anthropomorphic Espeon. A request from Clockworkz.

Right then and there you know what the purpose of this drawing serves.

Originally Posted by Horrible Critique that'll eventually get you banned from this forum

LOLZ u is lik teh furry! OMG OMG or You suck at art, leave now before I gouge my eyes out with a cheese grader.

The art forum is for critique and observation of art, flaming and comments that is flame bait will likely get you in a flame war or banned.

Originally Posted by Bad Critique

Okay, it's good.

How is it good? Many artists regardless of how good they are are not content with how good/bad something is. They want to know why and how they can improve.

Originally Posted by Good Critique

It's not bad, she has pretty eyes, I like the defeated feel that you have given her as well.

You tell the artist what you like about the particular piece. That's one thing the artist likes hearing.

Originally Posted by Excellent Critique

You're improving, what I am confused about though is where the light source comes from. The shading that you applied looks a little weird without a definite light source. Her face looks a little awkward too. Just practice on your shading a bit. You also might want to flip through this too http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/. I like softness of her eyes too. Keep on practicing!

You tell the artist what you like about the piece and the artist knows what to improve on. Huzzah, you have graduated from critique school!

Hope this helps you guys a bit.

Written byInfinity

---

I have something that I'd like to add. Its in reference to the person posting art.

If you're doing a drawing based off of a specific story, style, or one of your own characters fabricated from your imagination, do say so in your first post and provide information on such things. Make your intentions, ambitions, and purpose for the piece evident. Not everyone has the "artist's eye" and will be able to automatically acquire the message, and they may critique something that looks wrong to them, but was intended by you. For example:

This is a picture by Claude Monet, entitled Water Lily Pond. Monet was a well-known impressionist, and someone may comment on the picture not being messy and claim the intended picture to be undefined. Veritibly, the is picture is done in the art technique called impressionism, which is a style of painting that is characterized, primarily, by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light. The brush strokes are meant to appear as such.

For a more simpler example, look at this picture. Now the style used here in common in both comic book and cartoon characters - Big feet and hands, but skinny arms and legs, with frequently large heads/hairstyles. I do admit that at times the style may be unappealing, but it is not meant to be realistic anatomy-wise. Quite the contrary, characters of this sort do follow a specified and correct framework. Allow me to explain, within cartooning, your human characters do follow specific anatomy guidelines based upon age.

Try to help others in critiquing, make yourself clear, it may cut down on the amount of imbecilic responses that come. If you didn't want to overshade, say so, if you did not want to shade at all, say so, if you only wanted to apply a little bit of shading, say so, if you didn't mean for your character to look realistic, say so, and if your character had a large -insert body part here- be sure so say so, no everyone will be able to catch on as quick. If you made a mistake, don't be afraid to admit it. Don't try to cover up your mistakes/shortcomings by saying: "I meant for it to be like that." (when iyou didn't) or "It's supposed to be like that." (when it isn't)

Conclusively, as Infinity has stated, don't just point out what's bad and leave it at that. It would be best if you also included some helpful hints or tips that could help the artist improve.
Saying:

The shading is unsubstantial, I despise the pose, and your anatomy is horrid. I don't like it, keep practicing!

Congratulations, you have just said nothing worth noting.

However:

The shading isn't done too well, you might want to try using much brighter colors to reflect the highlights; you could also, utilize the -insert tool- because you're using -insert image program-. Your anatomy is far from perfect, but don't worry as most artists do have trouble when it comes to perfect anatomy. Might I suggest you practice by drawing different realistic animals to improve your style, and study the basic bone structure and muscle placement. Don't rush, sketch out at least four different pictures before you decide on your final version. Make sure to keep practicing.

Give suggestions based off of your own experience, learnings, or provide images/links that would help.
A person who knows how to critique also knows that an artist's feelings for his work can be quite fragile. Its good to be truthful, but make an effort in trying to encourage the person as well.

Note: It would also do you some good to stay away from number ratings. Saying: "That's awesome! I like it! It's Perfect! 10/10" Is most annoying and pointless.

Never refer to something as perfect, as there is no perfection within the world of art. Everything, no matter how impeccable it may look, has its flaws. You may think that you are boosting the artist's confidence, but you are actually hurting them more than helping them. Even I hate to hear someone say that my art or a picture that I drew is perfect; it is not, I know its not, and a plethora of others know as well. Stop with the perfect, as no one's work is perfect and there is always room for improvement.

Written byPsycho

Last edited by Zephyr Flare; 3rd December 2006 at 9:01 PM.

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[IMG]http://i39.*******.com/15i5fn4.png[/IMG]✂ Sometimes it feels like the whole wide world has made itself my enemyOn hiatus until further notice. May come back once in a while to reply to PMs and approve of threads.